Brought my TI onto shore in pretty rough surf with drives down. Both drives are operable but at least one drive has a bent shaft. I do not know what the shafts should look like in their correct orientation because it is possible that they were both bent -- I believe they can be straightened and realigned but I need some technical guidance. Has anyone seen anything on line that might assist me -- I am on vacation and do not have access to a Hobie dealer here. Thanks

Down here in Florida most of the beaches are nice soft sand, we seldom remove the mirage drives, I just make sure they are parked up against the hull and make sure my passenger puts the bungy on their drive before getting close to shore. They are surprisingly durable and I don't worry so much about them anymore. Actually we have had 8 Hobie mirage boats now and I have still to damage a mirage drive more than a slightly bent shaft that is easily straightened. Incredibly good design Hobie.Bob

I recently bent both shafts on the forward drive on my TI, hitting a sunken log in a creek.Yes, I know I should have been paddling but I was towing a couple of those funnyordinary kayaks without mirage drives and looking for the power.Anyway, I took off the round clip, like a key ring, removed the adjuster then therubber fin slides off. There is a slot machined in the end of the shaft which takes a spanner to unscrew the shaft.

My shafts were so bent that I needed heat on them to straigten them. No doubtlost some of the temper in the shafts by heating so will purchase new and keep these as spares. Seem to work fine even though they are not perfectly straight.

When I replaced the shafts I added loctite to make sure they don't unscrew andto help prevent any action between the stainless steel shaft and the brass receiver.

What Tony said.Once you have bent and then straightened the miragedrive masts they will eventually fail. I did get about 2 years of use after straightening mine but one snapped, followed by the other one a week later.Keep using them by all means but make sure you have spares on hand. Good time to go for the latest improvements if possible.

I'm on my way to Binks Marine to pick up two ST Turbo shafts at $26.50 each.We are doing an excursion with 5 other Kayaks this weekend so I really want the spares.7.5 Nm from Clayton to the end of the Finnis River where we will be picked up by the local winery for a long lazy lunch.The others in their non Hobie kayaks think they will get a tow from me back to Clayton.I may have to jump in the TI, start the motor and head off quick.After the long lunch I probably wont be doing anything quick.

Perhaps I'll take a photo for Slaughter and see if I can get the record for how manykayaks towed behind a TI.

The dealer is chasing availability and price on the upgrade to the mirage drives in Aus.I'm a little dubious about the speed increase Tony but maybe I can get one and test it out.

I have a couple of jetties spaced about 200m apart to give good timings.We used to use it to test manifolds and props etc for lane racing.It was fun when the pitch on the prop was so great that the speed boatstarted turning on the prop shaft. Funning feeling running on the gunwales and looking down on the driver from the observer seat.

Whilst off subject, I spoke to Rob over Christmas. He has caught up sincecoming back from Afghanistan and is getting out on the TI again.